[OTA] a Few Threads Hold Us Together

[cipherspeak]

There was little he, personally, could do about the latest discovery just beyond the Outposts - maybe if the script had been in Aramaic, he might have been of some use - so he'd ordered rubbings and lured Fin into productivity with chocolate and coffee. Then he'd slipped past Hadyn to go talk to the engineers about how the constant quakes were effecting the structural integrity of the castle. That was, he thought, something he knew at little more about; if your job in the military had been in explosives, it usually helped to know how much C4 it would take to bring a building down.

Not that he explained to the chief engineer the provenance of this particular knowledge.

After he'd done all that, he supposed that the general consensus was that he should have some tea and get back in bed. He was in his office instead, but at least the papers stacked next to him weren't reports to sign off on. They were completed watercolors, on a particular theme. Sketches from a few parties this year - Victor and Zoe at the Berthier wedding, Hadyn and Zoe dancing at the Spade ball - and more private moments as well, of the four close friends and Ben Mackinnon. Sophie Berthier, too, and some of the bride's other close friends; there was every a painting from memory of Lasandra Adare. She and Zoe had been friends, as Elisha remembered. She might have been the other bridesmaid if she hadn't left.

He was sewing the watercolors into a book with heavy silk thread, and the last picture to be in the little book of memories was less an actual event and more something he imagines would happen. Zoe in the dress he'd asked to see the week before and Victor in the formal kilt that matched the one waiting in Elisha's closet. He'd finished it the day before, before Hadyn got home.

It had seemed like a good thing to paint on Valentine's Day.

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[jokeswithknives]

A slim arm appeared in the doorway, hand at the end of it wagging a bright red apple. Juliette's pale face slowly appeared around the door frame, bright eyes framed by long dark hair. She grinned at the Club king, then took a bite of the apple as she slithered around the door and stepped lightly into the room.

"Whatcha doin', 'lisha?" she sing-songed, walking on her tiptoes until she could peer over his shoulder, ever curious.

[cipherspeak]

"Sewing," Elisha singsong end back before flicking a look at Juliette, raiding an eyebrow. Admittedly he wasn't sewing so much as trimming pages and ordering them.

"Don't get too close with that apple just now, though."

[jokeswithknives]

"I won't." True to her word, she sat the apple in the window and went back every few minutes for another bite, taking care to keep it away from the pretties the King was sewing.

But she watched with interest, seemingly captivated by the flickering of the needle and thread. "Who's it for, then?"

[cipherspeak]

"Zoe Kattalakis and Victor Fox," he tells her as he starts working holes into the paper. "Wedding bells, you know. More fun than trying to pick out a crystal pattern that goes with a china pattern that goes with a flatware pattern." Registering wouldn't have been a thing with those two even if it was a thing in the Deck.

"Have you been working on anything lately?"

[jokeswithknives]

Weddings, eugh. Juliette snorted lightly, returning to the window to coil atop the bench sill with her apple. She shrugged, taking another bite of the crisp fruit, saying after swallowing, "Mm, not really. Paper got wet."

No, don't be silly, I didn't want a notif.

[cipherspeak]

They happen with distressing frequency , and thanks to being King, Elisha is invited to every damn one of them.

He looks up, though, raiding an eyebrow. "On purpose or accidentally?" Out of the corner of his eye he can see Q uncurl from his perch and start forward to bother the newcomer, but it's not like he could stop him anyway.

[the_songbird]

"I think Finn is making some headway," Elani says with a smile as she pokes her head in to Elisha's office.

She didn't really want to bother him with work right now, particularly if he's supposed to be recuperating, but good news was good news, right? And she certainly wouldn't begrudge him some time to spend doing something some might consider frivolous.

After all, hadn't she done the same the night before?

[cipherspeak]

He was of the opinion that everyone - everyone - was making to much of a pretty basic flu. It wasn't the plague. It wasn't even pneumonia. But since Elani didn't actually mention that he should really be in bed with tea (a familiar refrain in the last week) he smiles a little and nods.

"I'm not sure how you can discern headway with Fin," he says dryly, " but I'll take your word for it."

[the_songbird]

She grins, "I've gotten practice, lately."

"But I've been making sure he's kept supplied with plenty of caffeine."

Elani was pretty certain that the man survived on coffee and words.

But she'll also step further into the office, "what are you working on?" It looks interesting, anyway.

[cipherspeak]

"It's a wedding present." He didn't really need to clarify; there was only the one wedding this spring wedding he knew of. " Sort of a watercolor album, see?" He pause in sewing the binding to flip through the heavy paper, pausing at a picture of Zoe in a flowered dress with a fox kit on her lap, and then another of Victor and Ben sitting together at a bar in companionable silence.

"I didn't think Victor was probably all that interested in a set of sterling silver napkin rings from Tiffany." Zoe either, really.

[the_songbird]

"No? Maybe I should send those back, then..." she says, musingly.

It's a joke, Elisha.

And she'll be smiling as she peruses the paintings, "they're lovely, by the way. This is a wonderful gift."

[maskofhearts]

Bond was in the door before Hadyn was, much to the younger man's dismay as he juggled food and two bottles of water. And it wasn't as if he could just sling the pup over his shoulder so easily anymore- for one, he squirmed. For another, he'd grown to be three times the size he'd been when he'd first come home. Now he was in the uncoordinated stage of his developed me- paws that were too big for his size, legs that just didn't want to work as fast as he wanted to go. In short, Hadyn wondered if the pup was going to brain himself to death from flying into walls instead of stopping or turning here lately.

"Bond wanted to say hi," he said with a soft smile as he set the food and waters down on a side table. "I think it was because Q was ignoring him from on top of the dresser." Q was not enjoying the new found playfulness of a three month old puppy.

"You're looking better."

[cipherspeak]

"Don't take it personally, Bond. Q's just making sure you know who the true king of the universe is." It's always the cat. Always.

Elisha straightened the fox-embossed cover on the book and pulled the thread through the holes before looking up. "Yeah, I think I'm actually getting better, as opposed to just telling people I am."

[maskofhearts]

Bond tilted his head curiously at Elisha for a moment, before turning his attention to sniffing about the room at all the various smells he had encountered a hundred times before...yet still treated as though they were new and unexplainable. Hadyn for his part just busied himself with arranging the food on the table.

And talking.

"Kevin's probably thankful. The man literal accused me of singlehandedly trying to ruin the suit." He said conversationally, smirking a little. "I don't think you ever have to worry about him attempting to take over the suit."

[cipherspeak]

"Kevin is not a man meant for leadership. He actually asked me if it was possible to challenge down a rank. You know, go back to the easy days of Sixdom." Elisha had just smirked, shook his head, and told Eileen's bodyguard to go get a drink.

"He's probably just terrified of your sense of organization." He pauses as he straightens pages. "As are we all, frankly."

[maskofhearts]

"What? It kept everything running smoothly- I really don't see what is wrong with that." He said, making a face at Elisha as he did so. Picking up on of the bottles of water, he moved toward the King and his desk, though, tipping his head slightly.

"Are you going to claim it terrified you? Because frankly- your sense of organization is a touch terrifying. You do have an entire staff of department heads, you know. They can do some work for you."

[somuchheart]

"Elisha, I-- what's that?" After a couple knocks of warning, Blythe steps into the room curiously, peeking over at what he's doing.

[cipherspeak]

"It's a...wedding book, I suppose," Elisha says as he knots off the thread and tests the pages. "Except with sketches instead of photographs. See?"

He pauses on a sketch of Blythe and Zoe sitting in a tree grinning wildly with some kind of secret.

[somuchheart]

"Oh, that's beautiful." She smiles brightly as she sees the picture. "That was a good moment to choose. Man. This past summer was pretty nice." Which, of course, reminds her of how 'not nice' things are now. A slight crease appears in her forehead before she asks, "... have you been having problems with, uh... fights? Now that the number of people who live in the Castle is skyrocketing?"

[cipherspeak]

"It was, wasn't it?" It had been stressful, hard at the time. New position, losing Sieben- and it was a loss, no matter how he'd felt about him - and Laureline and Ceiro. But compared to now...

"There was an attempt at a riot, a week or so ago. I thought about just beating the instigators over the head." Tensions were high all over, and the Deck had never been a happy, fluffy family.

Even in the Hearts, and he glances at her. "Feuding?"

[somuchheart]

"Mmm, yeah. We caught a couple Hearts in a duel the other day. I think they didn't expect me to get angry." She laughs, just a tad bit self-conscious. "I think they didn't know I could be angry. I might have blew up at them, but... um. At least they got the message?" She tugs on her hair.

[belowcastle]

He peeks at the king's latest artwork out of habit more than anything else expecting to see something abstract and (to him) incomprehensible. Therefore, he's pleasantly surprised to see a pleasant little vignette of a wedding scene.

"Master Fox and his lady, milord?" He ventures as he places strong, black coffee before Elisha.

[cipherspeak]

"That's the idea," Elisha says, and pauses to look critically at the picture. The pose is from a stolen moment at the cultural festival, but instead of the cultural costume she'd worn there, Zoe is leaning against Victor in a froth of cream lace. It's a pretty scene, he thinks, though there's no telling if its one that will actually happen come April.

"What do you think of it?"

[belowcastle]

"Lovely. You've caught their expressions quite well. Not your usual style." The happy couple must be pleased not to be depicted as splashes of color or with noses on top of their toes.

[cipherspeak]

Victor would likely be unamused. Or rather, Zoe would likely be unamused and Victor would just raise an eyebrow, as Victor does.

"I've spent enough time with them to guess what they might be," he says. "And her expressions aren't entirely different from her brothers." In ways, they were so alike you'd think they were twins.